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Be a Boy Scout

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My kids spent time in the Boy Scouts, we learned how to tie knots and make Pinewood Derby cars, among other things and, of course, memorized their motto “Be Prepared”. I get the feeling that a lot of people that show up in Las Vegas were never Boy Scouts.

 

This is a crazy busy weekend in Vegas and if you can find a room it is going to be expensive.  A quick look at a 3rd party site shows a 2 night stay at Mandalay Bay will cost you $650 per night, the Linq $450 per night. Heck, even a crapfest like the Downtowner motel is going for over $200 a night. Supply and demand is a wonderful thing if you own a hotel.

Of course, no one flies across country or drives several hours without a reservation or at least checking prices, so no problem. Wrong. Very wrong.

Call after call and walk in after walk in looking for rooms for this weekend. It was driving the reservation department and the front desk crazy.  Here is a sample of what we heard.

  • It’s not even the weekend, how can the rates be this high?
  • You can’t really be sold out, it’s Thursday.
  • So what do you want me to do now?
  • Who in their right mind would pay that much? (apparently you, if you want a room)
  • I drove 5 hours to get here and now this
  • I flew all the way across country and now you are saying you are sold out?

Be prepared!

 

Ok, so you didn’t make the mistake of not booking a room. Great, good for you. You get a gold star. You have made it to the front desk and are ready to check into your room. Absolutely wonderful. Just need that identification and credit card.

What do you mean you don’t have that with you? Give me back that gold star!

It happens at least a few times a week but tonight was full of them.

  • The guy that drove from Utah without his identification. Oh, and he realized that he didn’t have it about 15 minutes into the trip but didn’t want to back track because he didn’t want to be late and didn’t think it would matter. I have no idea what he thought he would be late for.
  • The couple that was checking in for 2 days and had 2 debit cards with a total of $58 on them and $32 in cash and was hoping we could just waive the security deposit and resort fee.
  • The guy that lost everything at the casino on the strip before checking in and had no way to pay the balance of the room.
  • the lady that was supposed to show up 2 days ago, never called to cancel or reschedule her dates and then showed up today wanting her room and the rate from Tuesday night.
  • and the guy that had actually checked in yesterday for 4 nights but decided that his losing sports bet was reason enough to throw a beer into the TV in his room and now was being kicked out because he refused to pay for the damages.

 

It may be no big deal not to have a reservation for a restaurant or buying show tickets before you arrive but please people, make sure you have a room and a way to get into the room….

or don’t but remember you probably will be disappointed when you arrive and will definitely end up being immortalized here.

 

 

 

 

7 thoughts on “Be a Boy Scout”

    • I totally agree. Even if you still think you are going back in time to the Vegas of $1.99 breakfasts and $2 blackjack you are still in a world of hurt.

      Even if I was comped a room as well as food and beverage and removed any gambling I would still think I would be spending $20-30 just getting around and some incidentals and I can find bargains.

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  2. Please tell me that the vast majority of these people are young with no life experience and were raised by wolves in some god-forsaken third world country. SMH

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  3. Love the blog. This post reminded me of the time when my parents took me to Vegas as a kid (early 90s’) and going to hotel after hotel because they thought paying over $35 a night was too much.

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  5. Several days prior to a Vegas trip last Fall, I accidentally left my ATM card in the machine and was about 10 minutes down the street before realizing it. So in a panic, I cancelled it only to get home to a message from the bank saying they had my card. So I needed a new card in a hurry but with this happening on a Saturday and the banks were going to be closed that Monday for a holiday, there was no way the card would get to my house before I left on Wednesday. So I called my hotel and explained the situation and they worked with me on it (The clerk I talked to at the hotel made a notation about the situation in the reservation.) and I had the card sent to the hotel and everything worked out in the end. There was no way I was going to just show up at the hotel without having the issue addressed. There was another time prior to a trip in which my bank issued everyone new cards (they had switched from Visa to Mastercard) and I called the hotel just to make sure that wasn’t going to be an issue. I’d rather not fly nearly 1800 miles and then have to sort out a situation that could potentially see me without a room (or having to pay a premium for a last minute booking).

    I’ve always made sure to leave enough in my account to cover the remaining balance of my booking as well as any fees or holds as well as a little bit more for a cushion (Although these days, I leave some additional $$$ to cover rideshare fares.). There are properties in Vegas I’ve stayed at that at check-in gave me the option to put down a smaller deposit for incidentials and not have access to things like the minibar and PPV TV instead of a higher daily charge. Since the rise of the resort fee, the only time a property didn’t charge me a resort fee was one in which I had won two free nights in a contest they sponsored. I still had to put down a deposit for incidentials, which is never an issue to me.

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